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WASHINGTON — July 1, 2014 — Higher ending stocks outside China and lower imports into China will put downward pressure on international prices in 2014/15. Additionally, world production is likely to exceed consumption in 2014/15, though by a lesser amount than in the past four seasons. As a result, world ending stocks are expected to rise by 6% to 21.4 million tons and the stock-to-use ratio would be 89%, or in other words there would be enough cotton stocks to cover consumption for nearly 11 months. This would be the fifth consecutive season of increase in ending stocks, after a 27% fall in 2009/10. China is estimated to hold nearly 60% of the world's stocks, most of which is held in its government reserve. At the end of June, the Secretariat estimates that the Chinese government will still hold 11.7 million tons. While consumption in China is forecast to grow during next season, a strong preference exists for high quality cotton, so it is unlikely that the government will be able to quickly draw down its reserve without offering significant discounts. At the end of 2013/14, China is forecast to hold 11.5 million tons, an increase of 19% from 2012/13, and these stocks are likely to further expand in 2014/15. Additionally, ending stocks outside China are also expected to rise by 7%, to 8.7 million tons at the end of this season and are projected to reach 9.7 million tons at the end of 2014/15.
In 2014/15, world production is forecast to drop by 2% to 25.3 million tons due to reduced planting in China, where cotton production may reach only 6 million tons. Production in the rest of the world is expected to increase by 1% to 19.3 million tons. In 2013/14, production in India is estimated at a record 6.5 million tons due to higher yields and better prices, which encouraged farmers to plant more cotton in 2014/15. Assuming yield is similar to the 3-year average, Indian cotton production is projected to reach 6.3 million tons in 2014/15, but this result is highly dependent on the timing of monsoon rains. The Southwest region of the United States has received much needed rain, which could help reduce the abandonment rate and result in a higher harvested area than last season. In 2014/15, production in the United States is expected to grow by 14% to 3.2 million tons.
In 2013/14, world consumption grew by less than 1% to 23.4 million tons, but a rise of 3%, to 24.1 million tons is anticipated in 2014/15. The high price of domestic cotton in China, restrictions on imports, difficulties with financing and weak demand for cotton yarn have caused many mills in China to further reduce operations this past season. However, with the ending of China's reserve policy, many mills are anticipating lower prices later this year, as already reflected in futures markets. Consumption in China should improve slightly and reach 7.9 million tons 2014/15. India experienced strong consumption growth in 2013/14, increasing by 5% to 5.1 million tons. In 2014/15, consumption is projected to grow by an additional 6% to 5.4 million tons.
World trade is projected to decline by 8% to 8.1 million tons, as a result of a reduction in China's imports from 3 million to 2.2 million tons next season. Imports in the rest of the world are forecast to rise by 3% and reach 5.9 million tons. Imports into Southeast Asia have grown in line with the expansion of consumption in the region, since little cotton is grown there. In 2014/15, the Secretariat expects imports by Bangladesh to increase by 2%, to nearly 900,000 tons, and those of Vietnam to rise by 9%, to nearly 700,000 tons.
Source: ICAC


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'Embodiment' - of or related to the human body. Humans are always located somewhere and at sometime, and our awareness is profoundly influenced by the fact that we have a body. Ideas about embodiment are relevant to many fields, including religion, science, and philosophy.
These pages are offered as a resource for those researching into embodiment, particularly as it relates to phenomenology, sociology and cognitive neuroscience.
This project is managed by Dr. Adrian Harris, who provides counselling and psychotherapy in Exeter. My blog - bodymind place - explores embodied situated cognition.
Last Updated: May 2015 (Reviews)

subset: commoncrawl


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This morning's YouGov poll, published in the Daily Telegraph, is surely the final nail in the coffin of any speculation about Gordon Brown calling a snap general election early in the New Year.
After the Prime Minister bottled calling an election in the autumn of 2007, I have always taken the view that it would be a long Parliament with a general election not taking place until 2010.
I was further convinced of this when Alistair Darling predicted in the pre-Budget report that the economy would begin growing again in the third quarter of next year: most experts view this as a very optimistic forecast, but he made it nonetheless. As such, calling an election before next autumn would surely enable the Conservatives and the media to make the charge that Brown was cutting and running in advance of a longer than predicted recession. "What do you know that you're not telling us?" we would be entitled to ask.
All the same, with a seeming "Brown bounce" in the polls, there has been almost fevered speculation around Westminster over the last fortnight about the idea of Brown going to the country in the late winter or spring of 2009. But I would venture that this bounce has now come to an end.
Whilst it is always unwise to look at any one poll in isolation, a trend is beginning to emerge as far as the recent YouGov polls are concerned, with increasing Tory leads of 4%, 6% and now 7% being recorded over the last month.
And assuming that this trend continues as the economic news gets worse, I am more convinced than ever that the election is a long way off - a view shared by two political editors writing in this morning's papers.
Andrew Porter writes in the Telegraph:
"The Tories have talked themselves onto an election war footing, but if Mr Brown would not countenance one when a Telegraph poll put him 11 points head in September last year a seven point deficit is hardly the stuff that will embolden him."
Meanwhile, Andrew Grice - presumably writing before the figures of the latest poll emerged - states in the Independent:
"While it might boost Mr Brown's prospects to hold an election in mid-recession, he knows that calling one might boomerang. It could look like an attempt to exploit the downturn to extend his mandate, a dangerous act when people feel little real affection for any party... So talk of a snap February 2009 poll is wide of the mark... he knows the bounce will probably end soon. That is why he is unlikely to call an election in 2009."
Of course, it is right that CCHQ should be prepared to fight an election whenever it is called, but I think that those charged with running the campaign should now be able to enjoy a rather more relaxed Christmas.
Jonathan Isaby


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Question about loaves splitting?
Just wondering if anyone else has ever had a problem with their loaves of bread splitting on top while it's rising. I live on a farm with my parents and siblings--we raise our own wheat and mill it ourselves. It's a hard red wheat. I bake bread to sell and its aggravating when the loaves split and aren't ''sellable'' any more. I use all whole wheat freshly ground. I've tried everything I can think of but it's still splitting sometimes. Sometimes it's just a little split and other times it goes across the whole top of the loaf. And sometimes a whole batch will be fine and the next time every loaf will be split. The ingredients I use are fresh ground flour (it does make a difference!), water, oil, honey, yeast and salt. I have a hobart mixer so I don't have to do it by hand which is nice. I can mix seven loaves at a time--that's how many fits in our oven. Any suggestions would be helpful!!


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- March 4, 2024
Eric Watters has made it to every rehearsal for Venice Theatre's "A Christmas Carol" this year. It may be the 65-year-old's 11th year playing Ebenezer Scrooge in the production, but this year is different from any other.
Although he took part in last year's production, Watters was recovering from a round of chemotherapy treatments for cancer with which he was diagnosed in August 2011. He didn't make it to any rehearsals that year. There was a stand-in for him, so all he had to do was step in at the last moment to perform.
As of now, Watters' cancer is in remission. But the healing process has taken him a lot longer than he thought it would.
"(Near) the first of July, I was just skin on bones, wondering if I would ever perform again," he says.
But, since then, Watters has turned a corner. He's gained weight and is spending more time at Venice Theatre, where he works as the director of planned giving.
"I spent all year just trying to get better," he says, "So, this year, it is for me, personally, a line of demarcation. When I'm through with ('A Christmas Carol'), I will say to myself, 'You are better.'"
Although he is feeling better, Watters says he just wants to be back to normal.
"The relief (this year) is that I haven't felt completely wiped out when the rehearsals are over," he says. "That's my real joy."
The only other production he has performed in at Venice Theatre is "Miracle Worker." He played the part of the father, which he describes as "Scrooge, with a Southern accent."
He has also been performing one-man shows at Venice Theatre for decades.
He calls them "extravaganza kinds of shows" with singing and dancing and a chorus line of dancing girls. Saturday, Dec. 8, was the first time he has performed since regaining his health — he sang 30 songs with an accompanist.
Although Watters has been connected to Venice Theatre in various ways over the years, he is particularly known for his role as Scrooge.
"In many ways, it's the centerpiece of my holiday," he says. "It's the most important thing to me."
"A Christmas Carol" premiered in 1999, at Venice Theatre, but Watters didn't join the cast until two years later. He didn't have to audition; he was asked to participate by Executive/Artistic Director Murray Chase.
"(He) only promised me one thing," Watters says. "He said he will always bill it as 'Eric Watters in "A Christmas Carol,"' and they don't do that for anything else."
Recently, the theater stopped billing the play that way — because they don't need to. It's become general knowledge to subscribers and regulars that Watters will be on stage in the lead role.
"I think when I first started the role, it was just a role," he says. But it has evolved since that first year, especially taking into account his battle with cancer for the last year-and-a-half. "It becomes a chance, in a way, to be like Scrooge — reborn. And this year will be very much like that for me internally."
As far as the rest of his persona, Watters is the opposite of being typecast for the cantankerous character.
"I'm generally known as a kind and generous fellow," he says. "I know better, of course, but I'm not going to let on."
When Watters is on stage, it's not difficult for him to become Scrooge; especially when the character goes from the lonely, formal and rigid Scrooge to the Scrooge who makes the realization about his future. Watters talks about this transformation and shudders, explaining that he can't help but cry on stage: "I feel it with every performance," he says.
In true theater fashion, the show experienced some Scrooge-like moments. One time, the show went on when there was a blackout during the second act of a 2009 performance. For a brief moment, while the crew set up generator-powered lights, the cast led Christmas carols. But because Scrooge hadn't had a change of heart at that point in the production, Watters had to concentrate to stay in character.
They continued the production using large flashlights to illuminate the cast, which made it difficult to ascend and descend the narrow, spiral staircase Watters has to climb. But nothing could stop Watters from portraying Scrooge.
"As long as I can continue to do all the physical things that are a part of the way I (perform) the role," he says referring to the big bell kicks, dancing around merrily and dashing up those steps, "I would love to continue. When the time comes that I really can't do it, then I'll let someone else."
Watters is thankful he can make it to and through the two weeks of rehearsals this year.
"Now, I'm convinced that I will be able to do all these shows in that short amount of time and not be dead when it's all over," he says.
Then he grins. "Although, I have said to many of my friends, 'What better place to die than on stage in the spotlight?'"


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This article is more than 1 year old
Jetpod 'flying taxi' inventor dies in prototype crash
VQSTOL city-hopper pranged in Malaysia
The inventor of a potentially revolutionary super-quiet "flying taxi" has died in a crash while test-flying his prototype in Malaysia.
Any colour you like.
Michael Dacre, MD of British-headquartered Avcen, was at the controls of a "Jetpod" aircraft at Tekah airstrip near Taiping when it crashed shortly after takeoff yesterday. Mr Dacre reportedly suffered severe burns and injuries and died at the scene. He was said to have been the only person aboard the aircraft and no-one else was hurt in the incident.
The Jetpod was intended to initiate a new class of Very Quiet Short Takeoff and Landing (VQSTOL) aeroplanes, able to get airborne after a run of just 125m while making no more noise than city traffic, then make a low-level flight at speeds greater than 300mph. Mr Dacre believed that it would thus be possible to offer rapid short-hop transits in and around major urban areas for comparatively modest fees - perhaps as little as £50 for a four-minute trip to or from places such as Woking to central London.
The six-seater Jetpod design featured small jet engines mounted above the wing to reduce noise. Some of the engine exhaust could be directed downward by special flaps, so allowing the little craft to get airborne fast.
Mr Dacre liked to characterise the design as a "flying taxi", but didn't care for the term "flying car" - he informed the Reg in 2005 that "the aircraft is not at all a car". This stance may have been motivated by the reflexive and mostly poorly-informed hostility towards the term "flying car" which has come to permeate much of the internet hive-mind in recent times. ®


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Materials: STRANDMON, drill, rocking chair runners
Description: Hello! I decided to turn an IKEA Strandmon chair into a rocking chair. I found a site online where you could buy unfinished rocking chair runners.
I ordered a set, and measured where the feet of the Strandmon would go.
Very carefully, we used a drill press to make holes for the feet to rest in.
After the runners fit with the legs, we stained and sealed them. To attach, we used wood glue and spax screws.
For specific directions and measurements on how to to complete this hack, please see the full post.
~ Kenz @ Interiors By Kenz, Salt Lake City, Utah


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The Watch
Don't look now but I think someone just invented the computerized watch. I know there have been attempts, most recently by Samsung but the critics have been a bit harsh as in this review from the New York Times. Also, Apple has been scooping up rights to iWatch but so far no product has emerged.
One of the tough parts of inventing a category like this — even for the inventor — is trying to figure out what goes into the product. If it's a slavish imitation of what's already in market as an analog product, why would you buy it? If you envision something more functional, then what are the functions? What makes it unique and not simply a miniaturized version of, say, a smartphone?
The first computer watches all seem to suffer from smartphone-itis, the need to reproduce every function of the small screen on the teeny-tiny screen. Seriously? Yup, you know they're out there. But the path to the new, new thing is through a small identity crisis that asks what's unique about me?
Well, as it turns out in pure Cartesian logic, I am what's unique about me. I think, therefore I am has morphed into I respire therefore I am. That sort of reduces humanity to the simple ability to fog a mirror but there's more to it than that.
Fitbit, if you don't know, is a little device that straps onto your wrist and records the activities that are unique to your day. Based on a few parameters you input at Fitbit.com, the system tracks the steps you take (and other activities) and figures out how many calories you've burned and how many you are (gasp!) entitled to if you expect to fit into that holiday outfit. Even your blood pressure and glucose reading can be entered so that you have an up to the moment digest of the many important health parameters that are unique to you.
So it had to happen at some point. The sleek wristband that formerly simply lit up to tell you about some goal reached has morphed into a watch with a digital readout where the blinking lights used to be. Now Fitbit is a data collector and a watch that synchs with your iOS and Android devices and can feed any apps in those ecosystems with your unique data for further processing. Think about that.
Watches that enable two way communication or social media hookups or listening to songs or that let you watch the World Series on your wrist have missed the point. A compass? Spare me. All those functions have homes on the device and they are not needed on the wrist. They might run on the wrist the same way that spreadsheets also ran on the laptop but it took the graphics packages and slide show software to make the laptop an indispensible part of business life.
And so it is with the computing watch. Sure it tells time and so does your handheld or a Timex but just as the handheld became the social location (close to us but still somewhat apart) the wrist has now been claimed as true personal computing space. The watch sleeps with us, showers with us; it is designed to not come off except for charging about once a week. The Watch is part of us yet at the same time it incorporates our other devices and computers through ecosystem apps — a good balance that's low on redundancy and high on added utility. Most importantly, it captures some of our most intimate data helping us manage our bodies.
That's it. Future generations of watches might incorporate more personal functionality (blood chemistry through sweat analysis, perhaps?) but they won't bother with email or they'll end up looking like over engineered Swiss army knives. That knife has a lot of useful stuff, many even have a knife and fork but did you ever try to cut a steak with one?
By: Denis Pombriant


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Posted by Editoress on 09/14/09
The Burnaby Velodrome's Fall/ Winter season is underway.
The club's AGM is set for September 17th, but programs have already begun. The website has now been updated with full autumn schedule through until January. The Friday Night race series starts up again on September 25 and runs for 10 sessions. The 2009 BVC Fall Challenge is set for November 13-15.
Learn to Ride and Learn to Race clinics are scheduled 2-4 times per week starting the week of September 21st and are ready for sign up on www.karelo.com . Our Youth and Junior training programs will commence in the last week of September and Elite training sessions have already begun gearing up for the World Cup season and the many National Team training camps and projects on slate for the fall and winter.
For a complete list of schedules and information please visit www.burnabyvelodrome.ca
Return to Canadian Cyclist homepage | Back to Top |


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Food Insecurity a Major Problem for U.S. Families
By Helly Lee and Zane Jennings
A new report from Feeding America, a network of over 200 food banks across the country, highlights troubling data and national trends on food insecurity (not knowing when or where your next meal will come from). "Map the Meal Gap" illustrates the critical need to continue federal investment in nutrition programs as families struggle to make ends meet in a slowly recovering economy.
In the United States, 49 million people are food insecure, including 16 million children. This has major consequences for a child's physical and cognitive development, resulting in poor school performance during critical years. Furthermore, food insecurity can detrimentally affect adults. Food-insecure women may be at greater risk of mental health issues, including maternal depression, while both women and men are at higher risk of diabetes.
Food insecurity hasn't let up during our slow economic recovery. Between 2011 and 2012, the national food insecurity average remained essentially the same, dropping just 0.4 percent. And despite a modest reduction in unemployment rates, poverty (a strong predictor of food insecurity) persisted at its previous rates.
The report includes county-level data on food insecurity and finds that minority communities, where poverty rates are higher than the national average, are disproportionately affected. In 2012, 93 percent of counties where African Americans make up the majority of the population fell into the high-food insecurity group. The average poverty rate in these counties was 29 percent—well above the national average (16 percent).
Federal programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) help address the nutritional needs of low-income families. SNAP has proven to be an effective anti-poverty program that expands to meet increased need when the economy is bad and retracts as the economy recovers. However, SNAP alone cannot fully alleviate the food insecurity of families across the nation. The report finds that 27 percent of food-insecure Americans are typically ineligible for most federal nutrition assistance programs because they exceed income limits. Instead of imposing the SNAP cuts included in the Ryan budget, we should strengthen the program to serve even more food-insecure households.
Food insecurity is of paramount importance to the futures of both our economy and families. Charities play a vital role in addressing the problem, but they aren't able to bear the bulk of the load. It is vital that we continue to invest in federal nutrition programs to support food-insecure communities.


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Loads Of Top Attractions
iVenture Cards offer the very best guided tours and sightseeing, wildlife, day cruises, museums, art galleries, indigenous and heritage experiences and much, much more as free entry. Every package offers you a choice of experiences for your destination, including many big name tourist attractions such as Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, Aquaduck Safari, Paradise Jetboating and much more! In addition, discover lesser-known, unique attraction experiences that you never knew existed. With iVenture Card there are plenty of great attractions to pick and choose from to suit your own interests and schedule!


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from the official site:
Brewers claim McGehee off waivers
Former Cubs prospect may help Crew with third-base troubles
By Adam McCalvy / MLB.com
from the official site:
MILWAUKEE -- The Brewers added a potentially intriguing piece to their third-base puzzle on Wednesday, claiming Casey McGehee off waivers from the Cubs.
McGehee, who turned 26 on Oct. 12 and is a right-handed hitter, batted .296 with 12 home runs and 92 RBIs for the Triple-A Iowa Cubs in 2008 but could not continue that success after a September callup. He hit .167 (4-for-24) in nine games with the Cubs, going 0-for-6 during the season-ending series against the Brewers in Milwaukee.
To clear a spot for McGehee on the 40-man roster, Milwaukee designated utility man Joe Dillon for assignment. Dillon played in 56 games over three stints with the Brewers in 2008 and batted .213, including .154 (6-for-39) as a pinch-hitter.
The Cubs drafted McGehee in the 10th round in 2003.
Bill Hall, Russell Branyan and Craig Counsell split most of the time at third base for the Brewers in 2008, but Hall struggled against right-handed pitching, Counsell could be a free agent if the Brewers do not exercise his option and Branyan is a free agent.
The Brewers also announced that infielder Brent Brewer will replace injured prospect Taylor Green in the Arizona Fall League. Green suffered a broken nose in a game last week when he was struck in the face by a pitch from Cardinals prospect Tyler Norrick. Green will have minor surgery to repair the damage.
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See more: Sweatshirts
123t I'm A Bearded Dad ... Except Much Cooler Funny Sweatshirt
Brand 123t
Product Information
- A 123t® original graphic design that simply states what everyone already knows: bearded dads are much, much cooler than normal dads. Makes an ideal gift for bearded dads, daddys, pops, fathers, and papas
- May feature a distressed-style graphic print to achieve a 'vintage' appearance
- This super soft-style crew-neck sweatshirt features set-in sleeves and taped neck for a stylish fit
- This 280gsm 80% cotton/20% polyester crew-neck sweatshirt is a premium-quality garment, with twin-needle stitching detailing, ribbed collar, cuffs and hem
- Machine washable (cold 40 degree Fahrenheit washes are recommended). Do not tumble dry or iron directly onto logo (turning garment inside-out is advised to iron)
- New with original tags
- Exclusively printed by 123t
- Fully registered trademarked brand
Chest size (to fit in cm)


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I've heard of a customer who's running a 420 node cluster, but I haven't seen it with my own eyes.
However, this record was surpassed on Thursday April 28 2011: we managed to run a 536 node cluster !
The setup was 130 celeron based blades with 1GB of memory, each running 4 JVMs with 96MB of heap, plus 4 embedded devices with 4 JVMs running on each. Each blade had 2 1GB NICs setup with IP Bonding. Note that the 4 processes are competing for CPU time and network IO, so with more blades or more physical memory available, I'm convinced we could go to 1000+ nodes !
The configuration used was udp-largecluster.xml (with some modifications), recently created and shipped with JGroups 2.12.
We started the processes in batches of 130, then waited for 20 seconds, then launched the second batch and so on. The reason we staggered the startup was to reduce the number of merges, which would have increased the startup time.
Running this a couple of times (plus 50+ times over night), the cluster always formed fine, and most of the time we didn't have any merges at all.
It took around 150-200 seconds (including the 5 sleeps of 20 seconds each) to start the cluster; in the picture at the bottom we see a run that took 176 seconds.
Changes to JGroups
This large scale setup revealed that certain protocols need slight modifications to optimally support large clusters, a few of these changes are:
- Discovery: the current view is sent back with every discovery response. This is not normally an issue, but if you have a 500+ view, then the size of a discovery response becomes huge. We'll fix this by returning only the coordinator's address and not the view. For discovery requests triggered by MERGE2, we'll return the ViewId instead of the entire view.
- We're thinking about canonicalizing UUIDs with IDs, so nodes will be assigned unique (short) IDs instead of UUIDs. This means reducing the size for having 17 bytes (UUID) in memory in favor of 2 bytes (short).
- STABLE messages: here, we return an array of members plus a digest (containing 3 longs) for *each* member. This also generates large messages (11K for 260 nodes).
- The fix in general for these problems is to reduce the data sent, e.g. by compressing the view, or not sending it at all, if possible. For digests, we can also reduce the data sent by sending only diffs, by sending only 1 long and using shorts for diffs, by using bitsets representing offsets to a previously sent value, and so on.
For now, 536 nodes is an excellent number and - remember - we got to this number *without* the changes discussed above ! I'm convinced we can easily go higher, e.g. to 1000 nodes, without any changes. However, to reach 2000 nodes, the above changes will probably be required.
Anyway, I'm very happy to see this new record !
If anyone has created an even larger cluster, I'd be very interested in hearing about it !
Cheers, and happy clustering,


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Translating Creation
Folk in non-English speaking nations are getting an increasing number of vital creation materials translated, but the fields are still white unto harvest.
"Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation." (Mark 16:15)
There was a time, and not all that many years ago, when one had to literally pack up house and travel to a foreign land to take the Gospel message to all nations under the sun. That still happens today, of course. There are dozens of missionary organizations world-wide overseeing many thousands of their missioners; as there are also multitudes of evangelists working in fields closer to home.
And then there are those who are also fulfilling this call to evangelize the world from their very own home, sitting at a desk and typing on a computer keyboard. We know of many such people in at least 30 countries world-wide who are tirelessly translating creation materials into their own language, for the express purpose of having those articles and other publications easily accessible to their own people. They know that in just about every country and culture (and certainly their own), evolution is a major stumbling block to belief in the Bible, so "creation evangelism" is a crucial Gospel priority.
I sometimes wonder how the Apostle Paul would have enjoyed (and used) the Internet had it been available to him in the 1st Century AD. Of course it wasn't, and yet his letters are still having a profound impact on people all over the world. God has His tools for each phase of His program, and now we are in the 21st Century with this truly astonishing means at our disposal. Web usage is growing at a daily rate that is staggering in its magnitude. Certainly, there are still many millions of people who do not have access to the electricity needed to facilitate the WWW, but those numbers are falling. If Coca-Cola can make it into the Sahara Desert, so too will the power to generate this means of communication. Increasingly, even many people in poor villages have access to a shared Internet portal somehow. We get very excited at the potential to reach increasing numbers, in rich and poor nations alike, through the Internet with the news that the Bible is true and can be trusted, including about their origins.
Just take a look at our growing list of translated articles. The translators of these are largely unsung heroes and certainly quiet achievers. We don't advertise the names of the translators—indeed for some it would be a matter of personal security. But it is not hard to appreciate their heart for the work or why they are so keen to work so diligently in this field. The following is an extract from an email from one of our newest translators:
"The very point that CMI does not intend to make any income [from this and many other translation projects], I fully appreciate because this actually is a Christ-minded and God-honouring attitude that is to be found quite rarely within the Church. I would like you to know that my desire is to work in this same kind of spirit. If you could realize all the spiritual needs we have here in France with a so aggressive secular anti-Christian trend having dominated for so long a time, and with so many French Christians suffering from the spiritual poverty of the Church, I think you would well understand how CMI's help is precious to us, by letting us translate valuable books.
"As for myself, although I work as a research engineer, I live a very simple life (you can ask John Hartnett who once came to our home). And we have been saving money for 6 years to be able to install a central heating system in our house. It was not easy for us (especially the kids) to endure cold temperatures in winter. Moreover, my parents in law (my wife's parents) also live with us, and so I have to feed a family of 7 persons with only one income.
"My desire is to spread the creation and Gospel message in the widest way as possible in the French-speaking countries, with no financial gain targeted."
And this is very much the theme of so many emails. There are young mums, grandmothers, grandfathers, people with doctorates and people without, working dads who still find the time to translate articles week by week, young marrieds who are giving of their valuable time, too, in the pursuit of this lofty goal … and so on. In many ways I am pleased I am not able to mention names because I feel sure I would miss someone out and I surely would not want that.
It took one of the funniest (well, I think so anyway) female comedians of the 20th Century (Lucille Ball) to come up with this perceptive statement:
"If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it … "
She went on to say:
"The more things you do, the more you can do."
And this has certainly been my experience as busy person after busy person has taken up the challenge and begun producing material (via translating CMI's books and/or web articles) in their mother tongue or second language.
If you feel that you would like to offer your time and skills to help in translating this life-changing material into another language, and you think that you and/or the team you have assembled have what it takes, please contact us here. Even one extra web article every few months is better than if you hadn't done it, and could make all the difference in someone's life. And of course, you can freely use it yourself as well, once translated.
P.S. Don't worry if 'your' LOTE [Languages Other Than English] language is already part of our list, there is always the need for more materials in any language, and our coordination systems are there to make sure you're not going to be 'doubling up' on someone else's work.


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Pie dough:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus additional for rolling
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cold unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons (trans-fat free) shortening
5-6 tablespoons ice water
2 1/2 lbs. Honey Crisp apples, peeled, cored, very thinly sliced
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (optional)
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon clove
2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces, for dotting pie
Cream, for brushing
Turbinado sugar, for sprinkling
In a large mixing bowl, stir together 2 1/4 cups flour, granulated sugar and salt. Work the butter and shortening in, using a pastry blender or your fingers, until pea-sized lumps form. Sprinkle in the water, 1 tbsp. at a time, stirring gently with a fork after each addition and adding only enough of the water to form a rough mass.
Using floured hands, divide the dough in half, and pat into 2 smooth, flattened disks. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
In a large mixing bowl, stir together apples, lemon juice, brown sugar, 1/4 cup flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and clove until well combined.
Remove pie dough rounds from refrigerator, and allow to warm up a bit before you start rolling. Roll out one of your pie dough rounds, thinly, on a floured surface, and fit into a 9-inch pie plate; pour 1/2 of the apples into pie plate, and dot with remaining 2 tablespoons butter. Cover with remaining apples.
Roll out the second pie dough round and slice it into wide strips, using a pizza cutter. Weave strips into a lattice, covering pie. Trim away the excess dough, and make the crust look all pretty. Brush cream evenly over lattice-top, and sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
Bake pie for 1 hour and 10-20 minutes, or until crust is golden brown, and apples are bubbly. Do NOT underbake - you want the apples tender. If your crust starts to brown too quickly, cover with foil.
Cool pie on a wire rack, to room temperature (or still a little warm!), before slicing.
Yield: 8-10 slices


text: /* * Copyright (c) 2000 Apple Computer, Inc. All rights reserved. * * @APPLE_OSREFERENCE_LICENSE_HEADER_START@ * * This file contains Original Code and/or Modifications of Original Code * as defined in and that are subject to the Apple Public Source License * Version 2.0 (the 'License'). You may not use this file except in * compliance with the License. The rights granted to you under the License * may not be used to create, or enable the creation or redistribution of, * unlawful or unlicensed copies of an Apple operating system, or to * circumvent, violate, or enable the circumvention or violation of, any * terms of an Apple operating system software license agreement. * * Please obtain a copy of the License at * http://www.opensource.apple.com/apsl/ and read it before using this file. * * The Original Code and all software distributed under the License are * distributed on an 'AS IS' basis, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER * EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AND APPLE HEREBY DISCLAIMS ALL SUCH WARRANTIES, * INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, QUIET ENJOYMENT OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. * Please see the License for the specific language governing rights and * limitations under the License. * * @APPLE_OSREFERENCE_LICENSE_HEADER_END@ */ /* Copyright (c) 1995 NeXT Computer, Inc. All Rights Reserved */ /* * Copyright (c) 1982, 1986, 1991, 1993 * The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. * * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without * modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions * are met: * 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright * notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. * 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright * notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the * documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. * 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software * must display the following acknowledgement: * This product includes software developed by the University of * California, Berkeley and its contributors. * 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors * may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software * without specific prior written permission. * * THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND * ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE * IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE * ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE * FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL * DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS * OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) * HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT * LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY * OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF * SUCH DAMAGE. * * @(#)subr_xxx.c 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/10/93 */ #include <sys/param.h> #include <sys/systm.h> #include <sys/conf.h> #include <sys/proc_internal.h> #include <sys/vnode.h> #include <sys/uio.h> #include <sys/sysproto.h> #include <sys/signalvar.h> /* for psignal() */ #ifdef GPROF #include <sys/gmon.h> #endif /* * Unsupported device function (e.g. writing to read-only device). */ int enodev(void) { return (ENODEV); } /* * Unsupported strategy function. */ void enodev_strat(void) { return; } /* * Unconfigured device function; driver not configured. */ int enxio(void) { return (ENXIO); } /* * Unsupported ioctl function. */ int enoioctl(void) { return (ENOTTY); } /* * Unsupported system function. * This is used for an otherwise-reasonable operation * that is not supported by the current system binary. */ int enosys(void) { return (ENOSYS); } /* * Return error for operation not supported * on a specific object or file type. * * XXX Name of this routine is wrong. */ int eopnotsupp(void) { return (ENOTSUP); } /* * Generic null operation, always returns success. */ int nullop(void) { return (0); } /* * Null routine; placed in insignificant entries * in the bdevsw and cdevsw tables. */ int nulldev(void) { return (0); } /* * Null system calls. Not invalid, just not configured. */ int errsys(void) { return(EINVAL); } void nullsys(void) { } /* * nonexistent system call-- signal process (may want to handle it) * flag error if process won't see signal immediately * Q: should we do that all the time ?? */ /* ARGSUSED */ int nosys(struct proc *p, __unused struct nosys_args *args, __unused int32_t *retval) { psignal(p, SIGSYS); return (ENOSYS); } #ifdef GPROF /* * Stub routine in case it is ever possible to free space. */ void cfreemem(caddr_t cp, int size) { printf("freeing %p, size %d\n", cp, size); } #endif


text:
Urban Aboriginal peoples (First Nations peoples, Métis, and Inuit) are an increasingly significant social, political and economic presence in Canadian cities today.
First-of-a-kind Research Study takes new, in-depth look at growing population in 11 cities.
TORONTO, April 6, 2010 – An extensive new research study has gone beyond the numbers to capture the values and aspirations of this growing population.
By speaking directly with a representative group of 2,614 First Nations peoples, Métis and Inuit living in major Canadian cities, as well as 2,501 non Aboriginal Canadians, the Environics Institute, led by Michael Adams, has released the Urban Aboriginal Peoples Study (UAPS), which offers Canadians a new perspective of their Aboriginal neighbors living in Canada's eleven largest cities. In the 2006 Census –1.172 million people self-identified themselves as "Aboriginal", half of whom (one in two) reported living in urban centres.
"This study is about the future, not the past. The Urban Aboriginal Peoples Study offers Canadians a new picture of Aboriginal peoples in cities. Ideally, the things we have learned will help people understand each other better, have better conversations, and live together better in our urban communities." ~Michael Adams, President, Environics Institute
Guided by an Advisory Circle, Aboriginal people designed the research themes, methodology, and executed the main survey.
"When urban Aboriginal peoples are researched it's often about problems like homelessness and sexual exploitation. There are hundreds of thousands of us living in cities, and there are a lot of positive things happening in our communities; it's not all crises. But unless someone comes along and says, 'This is interesting. Tell me about your choices; tell me about your community,' then people don't notice that they're part of a wider social change." ~Ginger Gosnell-Myers, UAPS Project Manager
- For most, the city is home, but urban Aboriginal peoples stay connected to their communities of origin. Six in ten feel a close connection to these communities – links that are integral to strong family and social ties, and to traditional and contemporary Aboriginal culture. Notwithstanding these links, majorities of First Nations peoples, Métis and Inuit consider their current city of residence home (71%), including those who are the first generation of their family to live in their city.
- Eight in ten participants said they were "very proud" of their specific Aboriginal identity, i.e., First Nations, Métis or Inuk. Slightly fewer – 70 per cent – said the same about being Canadian.
- Urban Aboriginal peoples are seeking to become a significant and visible part of the urban landscape. Six in ten feel they can make their city a better place to live, a proportion similar to non-Aboriginal urban dwellers.
- Six in ten were completely or somewhat unworried about losing contact with their culture, while a minority were totally (17 per cent) or somewhat (21 per cent) concerned. As well, by a wide margin (6:1), First Nations peoples, Métis and Inuit think Aboriginal culture in their communities has become stronger rather than weaker in the last five years.
- They display a higher tolerance for other cultures than their non-Aboriginal neighbours: 77% of urban Aboriginal peoples believe there is room for a variety of languages and cultures in this country in contrast to 54% of non-Aboriginal urbanites.
- Almost all believe they are consistently viewed in negative ways by non-Aboriginal people. Almost three in four participants perceived assumptions about addiction problems, while many felt negative stereotypes about laziness (30 per cent), lack of intelligence (20 per cent) and poverty (20 per cent).
- Education is their top priority, and an enduring aspiration for the next generation. Twenty per cent want the next generation to understand the importance of education, 18 per cent hope younger individuals will stay connected to their cultural community and 17 per cent hope the next generation will experience life without racism.
- Money was cited as the No.1 barrier to getting a post-secondary education among 36 per cent of those planning to attend – and 45 per cent of those already enrolled in – a university or college.
- Urban Aboriginal peoples do not have great confidence in the criminal justice system in Canada. More than half (55%) have little confidence in the criminal justice system and majorities support the idea of a separate Aboriginal justice system.
- A significant minority (4 in 10) feel there is no one Aboriginal organization or National political party that best represent them, or cannot say.
The perspective of non-Aboriginal urban Canadians
- Non-Aboriginal urban Canadians are divided on where Aboriginal people fit in the Canadian mosaic: 54 percent believe Aboriginal people should have special rights and 39 percent think they are just like any other cultural or ethnic group (this divide varies across cities).
- Perceptions of the current state of relations between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people are divided, but there are signs of optimism.
- NA urban Canadians are starting to recognize the urban Aboriginal community and their cultural presence, but have limited knowledge of Aboriginal people and issues, although they do demonstrate a desire to learn more.
- There is a widespread belief among NA urban Canadians that Aboriginal people experience discrimination.
The Study
Through UAPS, more than100 interviewers, almost all of whom were themselves Aboriginal, conducted 2,614 in-person interviews with Métis, Inuit and First Nations (status and non-status) individuals living in eleven Canadian cities: Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, Toronto, Montreal, Halifax and Ottawa (Inuit only).
The study also investigated how non-Aboriginal people view Aboriginal people in Canada today through a telephone survey with 2,501 non-Aboriginal urban Canadians living in these same cities (excluding Ottawa).
This first-of-its-kind study, conducted by the Environics Institute, and guided by an Advisory Circle of recognized experts from academia and from Aboriginal communities, is designed to better understand the values, identities, experiences and aspirations of Aboriginal Peoples (First Nations, Métis and Inuit) living in Canadian cities.
Findings and insights from this research are intended to establish a baseline of information on the urban Aboriginal population in Canada, prompt discussion within Aboriginal communities and between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples, and inform public policy and planning initiatives that pertain to urban Aboriginal peoples.
UAPS Sponsors
Major sponsors: | Sponsors: |
INAC – Federal Interlocutor | Canadian Millennium Scholarship Foundation |
Trillium Foundation | Calgary Foundation |
Province of Alberta | Elections Canada |
Province of Saskatchewan | The Mental Health Commission |
Province of Manitoba/Manitoba Hydro | City of Edmonton |
Province of Ontario (Aboriginal Affairs) | City of Toronto |
Province of Nova Scotia (Aboriginal Affairs) | |
Winnipeg Foundation | |
John Lefebrve | |
Tides | |
Edmonton Community Foundation | |
Toronto Community Foundation | |
Vancouver Foundation | |
Halifax Regional Municipality | |
Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami |
What's next?
The research is intended to provide a potential starting point for a range of initiatives: ongoing organizing and capacity-building in the cities studied; dialogue among Aboriginal networks and organizations about urban realities in different parts of the country; policy discussions at all levels of government; public dialogue; and, of course, further research. UAPS data will be made available to other research projects.
Currently, the Environics Institute is preparing to roll out an engagement process in the eleven cities that participated in the study bringing the study's findings back to the communities that shared their insights and told their stories.
The Urban Aboriginal Peoples Study may be downloaded here.
The Environics Institute for Survey Research was established in 2006 to sponsor relevant and original public opinion, attitude and social values research related to issues of public policy and social change. We wish to survey those not usually heard from, using questions not usually asked.


text:
The University of North Carolina opened its doors on 15 January 1795, and by the end of the first school term, forty-one students were enrolled. It quickly became apparent, however, that at least half of the first class was unprepared for university-level work. In North Carolina, approximately forty preparatory schools had been chartered by 1795, but few were open. Seeing a need for an institution to offer students remedial instruction, in July 1795, University Trustees ordered the construction of a separate preparatory school.
Though the order was given in 1795, the Grammar School was not built until 1801. In the interim, the University rented a building in Chapel Hill, and it served sixty-two or sixty-three students by 1797. Boys continued to attend the makeshift school until the Grammar School building was completed. John M. Goodloe was paid £159 12s. 1d. (approximately $320) for constructing the 600-square-foot, one-story building. The Grammar School stood on the Grand Avenue, between what are now Franklin and Rosemary Streets.
Grammar School classes were taught by tutors. Among the early tutors were Nicholas Delvaux, Samuel A. Holmes, William L. Richards, Matthew Troy, and Chesley Daniel. Discipline was "strict and rigorous," and corporal punishment "freely practiced" (Henderson 1949, 43). For example, "any Preparatory student under sixteen years of age willfully injuring the college buildings was to be publicly whipped with not less than five or more than ten stripes" (Battle 1974 1:205). Tutors lived among the students and were required to report on their misbehavior to the University faculty. Students of the Grammar School took classes such as English grammar, reading and spelling, arithmetic, Latin grammar, and French grammar. During the first years of operation, graduates of the Grammar School were admitted to the University without passing an exam, as it was simply another department of the University. As time passed, however, the two institutions separated, and the Grammar School operated outside of the University. Enrollment in the Grammar School began to decline as preparatory instruction in the rest of the state improved. The need for the Grammar School steadily lessened, and in 1819, the Headmaster resigned and the school closed. In 1832, the building and grounds were sold.
Works Consulted: Battle, Kemp P., History of the University of North Carolina, Spartanburg, SC: The Reprint Company, 1974; Henderson, Archibald, The Campus of the First State University, Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 1949.


text:
Afghan president evicts US special forces from troubled province
Afghan President Hamid Karzai Sunday ordered US special forces troops to leave Wardak province southwest of Kabul within two weeks. The Americans and Afghans working for them were accused of fueling insecurity and causing civilian casualties. US officials were not informed before the announcement was made by Karzai's chief spokesman.
"We take all allegations of misconduct seriously and go to great lengths to determine the facts surrounding them," U.S. Forces-Afghanistan and the International Security Assistance Force said in a statement.


text:
Fast guide to Smarty's JR special Features
Fast guide to Smarty's JR software levels
The horsepower settings have a modified "Torque management" (TQM). The throttle response is greatly improved but is set to a safe limit. With "Safe" I mean safe for your tranny and rest of the driveline.
Tested on stock trucks on our in house Dyno Dinamics Twin Retarder Dyno. Stock means just that. Stock! Even the air filters were stock...
The trucks were S T O C K, even the wastegate settings! We checked the "baseline" (the stock truck hp at the rear wheels) twice in a day in order to be sure about our findings. The above declared hp numbers are all rounded down to the closest number. For example the 90 hp file actually did 96 hp. That's a 90 hp software for me, not a 100. The 210 hp was 215.
Power on Demand 100 power levels selectable in just one second during the driving! It's easy: just type the preferred power level directly on Smarty keyboard, from 00 to 99. That's all! For security reason, the truck waits that the throttle is released before applying the new power level.
No trace is left in the ECM! I herby CLAIM that SmartyCR is the FIRST AND ONLY downloader that does not erase any of the stored data in the ECM. Smarty does NOT leave any electronic footprints in the ECM or any other electronic module in the truck. Smarty does NOT set ANY codes once the ECM is set back to stock. Smarty does NOT need to have fuses pulled.
No matter what the competition claims , in one way or another they're ALL detectable. Smarty is NOT!
Yet, Smarty can not do one thing for you. Fix what others have broken. Smarty can not restore a key on counter that another downloader has erased. Smarty can not fix VIN# troubles caused by other products. If your Check engine / ABS light is on because another product has screwed your ECM, Smarty can not fix it, the other guy HAS to..
ABS / Speedo recalibration The tire height can be adjusted up to 44" in increments of 10 tenth of an inch in just a couple seconds. Of course, Smarty needs to be VIN# locked to the truck in order to get into the ABS adjustment section.
DTC Code reader The name says it all. You can read and erase codes. Codes are displayed also in plain English. That's old news by now. Smarty S-03 was the first one to provide that utility, others found the idea to be a good one too. (Smarty does erase ABS codes too but does not display them)
ECM update speed Faster than anything else on the market! Again we've done our homework on the protocol. Less than 5 minutes. Three times faster than a Star-Scan diagnostic tool or competitor.
We have developed our own bootloader in order to not have to pull fuses should an update become interrupted for any reason. All you have to do is to turn the key off / key on Smarty does everything else on it's own.
Updates The CaTCHER softwares as they are today are only a starting point. Expect major news in future. We're for your feedback, opinions, likes, dislikes...
We will make Smarty do what YOU want, TOGETHER.


text:
require Imager::Probe;
my %probe =
# short name of what we're looking for (displayed to user)
name => "FOO",
# pkg-config lookup
pkg => [ qw/name1 name2 name3/ ],
# perl subs that probe for the library
code => [ \&foo_probe1, \&foo_probe2 ],
# or just: code => \&foo_probe,
inccheck => sub { ... },
libcheck => sub { ... },
# search for this library if libcheck not supplied
libbase => "foo",
# library link time options, uses libbase to build options otherwise
libopts => "-lfoo",
# C code to check the library is sane
testcode => "...",
# header files needed
testcodeheaders => [ "stdio.h", "foo.h" ],
my $result = Imager::Probe->probe(\%probe)
or print "Foo library not found: ",Imager::Probe->error;
Does the probes that were hidden in Imager's Makefile.PL, pulled out so the file format libraries can be externalized.The return value is either nothing if the probe fails, or a hash containing:
- "INC" - "-I" and other C options
- "LIBS" - "-L", "-l" and other link-time options
- "DEFINE" - "-D" options, if any.
The possible values for the hash supplied to the probe() method are:
- "pkg" - an array of pkg-config names to probe for. If the pkg-config checks pass, "inccheck" and "libcheck" aren't used.
- "inccheck" - a code reference that checks if the supplied include directory contains the required header files.
- "libcheck" - a code reference that checks if the supplied library directory contains the required library files. Note: the Makefile.PL version of this was supplied all of the library file names instead. "libcheck" can also be an arrayref of library check code references, all of which must find a match for the library to be considered ``found''.
- "libbase" - if "inccheck" is supplied, but "libcheck" isn't, then a "libcheck" that checks for "lib"libbase$Config{_a} and "lib"libbase.$Config{so} is created. If "libopts" isn't supplied then that can be synthesized as "-llibbase". "libbase" can also be an arrayref of library base names to search for, in which case all of the libraries mentioned must be found for the probe to succeed.
- "libopts" - if the libraries are found via "inccheck"/"libcheck", these are the "-l" options to supply during the link phase.
- "code" - a code reference to perform custom checks. Returns the probe result directly. Can also be an array ref of functions to call.
- "testcode" - test C code that is run with Devel::CheckLib. You also need to set "testcodeheaders".
- "testcodeprologue" - C code to insert between the headers and the main function.
- "incpath" - $Config{path_sep} separated list of header file directories to check, or a reference to an array of such.
- "libpath" - $Config{path_sep} separated list of library file directories to check, or a reference to an array of such.
- "alternatives" - an optional array reference of alternate configurations (as hash references) to test if the primary configuration isn't successful. Each alternative should include an "altname" key describing the alternative. Any key not mentioned in an alternative defaults to the value from the main configuration.


text:
Privacy Policy
At Vet Tech Institute we strive to educate our visitors about how to appropriately safeguard their privacy when traveling on the Web because we are committed to protecting your privacy. Our information collection practices are described below.
What Information is Collected?
We take the issue of privacy very seriously. We only ask visitors to submit personally identifiable information (such as their full names, addresses, email addresses, phone number, etc.), when it is necessary to ensure participation in online activities, such as submitting an online request form. We make clear the reason we are collecting the information and what will be done with the information so that our visitors can make an informed choice when they voluntarily submit personally identifiable information to 9.sxxmcg.com. Vet Tech Institute does not sell, trade or transfer personally identifiable information to a third party. Also, Vet Tech Institute does not allow any advertisements on our site.
Bradford Schools Inc is permitted to contact individuals with whom they have a business relationship via any contact information provided, including telephone, text messages, email, and postal mail. To unsubscribe from emails, follow the unsubscribe link found at the bottom of each message. To be removed from future postal mailings or from being contacted via telephone, please email email@example.com with your name and contact information. Standard carrier fees apply for text messages. To opt out of receiving text messages from Bradford Schools and their affiliated schools, please email email@example.com.
Cookies and Log Data
Cookies are information that your web browser places on your computer when you visit a website. 9.sxxmcg.com is able to access only the cookies that it sets on your computer and we are only able to determine things like the type of computer operating system, and browser that you and other visitors are using. 9.sxxmcg.com collects this information in the aggregate in order to improve access to our content based on our visitors' browsers and operating system types to make our content available to as many users as possible. You can, of course, disable cookies on your computer by indicating this in the preferences or option menu or your browser. Log data collected on web servers supplies us with aggregate information about the number of visits to different pages of our site and how you found our site, such as through search engines or other website. We use this information only for improving our site.
If you have any questions regarding our privacy policy, we can be reached at the phone numbers listed for each campus.


text:
9 Foods You're Not Allowed To Buy
Fortune magazine has compiled a list of 9 "forbidden' foods that have been banned (for some reason or another) in the US. Trans fats in NYC, foie gras in Chicago… Here's the list:
- Trans fats
Banned in: New York City - Raw milk
Banned in: 21 states - Absinthe
Banned in: The U.S. (sort of: Absinthe is legal in the United States, contrary to popular belief, as long as the spirit's levels of thujone – a toxic chemical present in wormwood, one of the herbs used to make absinthe – do not surpass the Food and Drug Administration's limit of 10 parts per million.) - Foie Gras
Banned in: Chicago - Uncertified Chilean sea bass
Banned in: The U.S. - Horse meat
Banned in: California, Illinois and other states - Wild Beluga caviar
Banned in: The U.S. - Shark fins
Banned in: The U.S. - High-fructose corn syrup
On the endangered list in: San Francisco
What do you think of food bans? Some people are willing to risk breaking laws to smuggle raw milk across state lines… only to get diphtheria. Are you among them?
9 forbidden foods [Fortune Small Business] (Thanks, Stacy!)
(Photo: Unhindered By Talent )
Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.


text:
The NEW Lithium powered OSET 20.0 Racing MKII - A true innovation
Significantly increased run time
1+ day trial riding / 3+ hours off road riding
Reduced bike weight
Over 8 kg lighter then the lead acid battery version
New 'Electric Bolt' graphics set
The new lithium powered 20.0 Racing MKII is a true innovation and the machine of choice for riders interested in maximum run time, reduced bike weight & ultimate performance and is often the bike that riders and parents choose to enter the world of trial competitions. The power and response can be adjusted for any riding style, while the fully adjustable suspension can be set up to suit rider weights and preferences - this bike is loved by kids and adults alike for its sheer versatility and fun.
The lithium powered OSET 20.0 R MKII has been meticulously designed to help the rider develop and enhance their motorbike skills and confidence. Being electric they have no hot parts, require no petrol, produce no fumes and are virtually silent, meaning riders can use them everyday in places other bikes cannot go.
Key Features:
- Powered by the OSET 20Ah, 48V Lithium battery, with charging, discharging & diagnostic ports
- Brand new MKII - 'Electric Bolt' graphics
- A strong frame, thin grips, a padded chin guard covering the steering stem combined with a magnetic lanyard cut-out switch ensure safety is the priority
- Separate key switch is easily removable by the parent when it's time to take a break!
- Exclusive OSET wide rear rim and 3" wide deep tread competition motorcycle tyre
- Alloy swingarm, alloy sprocket carrier and sprocket for lighter weight and easy gearing changes
- OSET controller with our exclusive '3 dial' system, which allows parents to easily adjust the power, speed and response characteristics of the bike
- It can be set from a very mellow machine at walking pace and low power, all the way up to a competition level machine with maximum power
- For riders aged 8+
The OSET is just the best thing my son has had! He has the freedom of the outdoors and quality time with his dad away from technology. My 9 year old has the 20.0 R so his dad had to go out and get the 24.0 R - Katrina Meed, California, USA
The lithium powered OSET 20.0 Racing MKII is an innovation in electric bikes and will become the gold standard of youth competitive trials and electric dirt bikes the world over.
Technical data
Wheelbase - 1050mm (41.3'') | Seat Height - 550mm (21.6'') |
Ground Clearance - 290mm (11.4'') | Handlebar Height - 980mm (38.6'') |
Wheels - 19'' front alloy rim/hub. 14'' competition rear alloy rim/hub | Suspension - Front telescopic air fork. Rear shock, preload adjustable & oil dampened. |
Bike Weight - 34.7 kg (with battery) | Brakes - Front 180mm & rear 160mm hydraulic disc. |
Motor - 1200W 48V OSET neodymium magnet DC motor. | Controller - 48V OSET with thermal cut-out, adjustable for power, speed & response |
Batteries - 1 x OSET 20Ah, 48V Lithium battery, with charging, discharging & diagnostic ports. | Charger - 3 amp 48V, Lithium Ion. |
Age Range - 8+ years old. | Rider Weight Limit - 110 lbs (50 kg) |
Find your nearest dealer


text:
Gay Marriage Activists Push for Referendum in Maine
Gay marriage advocates, capitalizing on the New York same-sex marriage law, on Thursday launched a campaign backed by a Methodist pastor seeking a referendum to bring gay rights back to Maine.
EqualityMaine and Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) announced the launch of what they called a citizen's initiative to bring marriage equality back to the voters of Maine in 2012, the same-sex marriage advocacy groups said at a press conference in Lewistown Thursday.
Preparations for the referendum had been going on for 18 months seeking support for "marriage equality," they said.
Pastor Michael Gray from the Old Orchard Beach United Methodist Church filed paperwork with election authorities to start the process of gathering over 57,000 signatures to put the issue on the November 2012 ballot.
"Do you favor a law allowing marriage licenses for same-sex couples that protects religious freedom by ensuring no religion or clergy be required to perform such a marriage in violation of their religious beliefs?" reads the cautious language submitted to the Secretary of State for review.
"Once the Sec. of State certifies the language, EqualityMaine will then collect 57,277 signatures to get the question on the ballot in November," the gay advocacy groups said in a statement.
But opponents are confident they can defeat the attempt to distort traditional marriage in Maine. The Christian Civic League said many groups were "more than ready to defend traditional marriage in the State of Maine."
"Our ranks have grown as Mainers come to understand what the LGBT agenda means for families and our children's sexual education in the public schools. We know that they will repress our religious freedom to remove our children from such classes," said Carroll Conley Jr., Executive Director of Christian Civic League of Maine.
Conley said the they would "expose" EqualityMaine for their "extreme intolerance against Catholics and Bible-believing Christians," he was quoted by The Record of the Maine Family Policy Council as saying.
Mainers repealed a same-sex marriage law in November 2009 through a referendum, six months after the legislation was passed in the state.
Marc Mutty, spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, said Mainers should not be put through "what will likely be another divisive drawn-out campaign" after the 2009 referendum.
"The people of this country have rejected same-sex marriage in all cases in which it has been put on the ballot. There's no reason why we should expect a different outcome this time," he was quoted as saying.
EqualityMaine's executive director Betsey Smith believes "many Mainers have changed their hearts and continue to change their minds."
"We have been going door to door talking to them and hearing their journey towards support."
Smith also claimed that two separate polls conducted this year showed that 53 percent of Mainers support marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples in the state.
"We believe there's strong support for marriage in Maine. We believe that all families deserve the right to marry. The longer we wait, the longer we delay this right of loving and committed couples to marry," Associated Press quoted Matt McTighe from GLAD as saying.
The gay rights groups featured a video of the Methodist pastor explaining why he supported the gay agenda. "Whose marriage I have learnt from the most? I have to say my in-laws of all the people. They've been married for a very long time. They are not perfect people but they love and support each other more than anybody I know… Over time I have learned that people who are gay are the same… There is no difference between them and us," Pastor Gray said.
Changes to marriage law will not affect "how different religions choose to define [marriage] within their religious right," added Gray, the former Limbaugh Republican who is now a supporter of gay rights.
Maggie Gallagher, chairman of the board of the National Organization for Marriage, would argue differently.
While acknowledging that "gay people are perfectly capable of entering into loving, committed caretaking unions," she contended in a commentary on USA Today that "that does not justify government involvement or coercion of third parties to recognize these non-marital relationships as marriages."
"Marriage," she maintained, "is rooted in real differences between same-sex and opposite-sex unions. Only a union of husband and wife can make new life, and connect those children in love to their mother and father. Society – and government – have a unique interest in promoting marriage to further this goal."
According to The Portland Press Herald, about 30 other Methodist clergy members in Maine signed a statement supporting gay rights in June. Last week, a jury of Methodist clergy members suspended for 20 days the Rev. Amy DeLong for officiating a wedding for a gay couple in violation of church law.


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There's a story in Crazy Chicken Pirates 3D, but believe us, you won't need one. The game — whose title reads about as gracefully as magnetic poetry — sees you gunning down chickens for 90 seconds. Then, we guess, you can do it again. If you'd like to. You may not, but the option to play again is about the only option the game gives you at all, so we'll take it.
The controls, thankfully, are great — at least in the main stage. Bonus stage controls are another issue, but we'll get to those in a moment. The main game sees you aiming with the stylus and firing with the L button. It's an arrangement fans of Kid Icarus: Uprising are familiar with, and it works just as well here. It's easy to aim and fire, and as those are the main actions of the game, that's a good thing.
Reloading is handled by tapping a small button on the touch screen, and there's a score penalty for doing so, which helps to inject an element of conservative strategy to proceedings, rather than reward mindless chicken massacre.
Unfortunately the game itself consists of only a single stage, and there is a strict time limit of 90 seconds... both of which dampen the fun a great deal. The lack of any other stages means that you will literally see everything this title has to offer within a minute and a half, and there won't be any reason to return unless you'd like to better your score. The stage is populated with comical animations and hidden items, but they aren't randomised so once you've seen them there's no novelty in a return visit.
Teyon's own Bird Mania 3D also featured a single stage, but its endless nature and randomly generated layouts made it worth revisiting. Here it's the same experience every time, and that's a problem.
Interestingly enough, the fact that the stage always plays out the same way can lend itself to some interesting strategising. After all, with only 90 seconds to play with, every shot needs to count, and some shots can count more than others. Triggering certain events can lead to big score bonuses, and avoiding the targets that provide smaller rewards is wise. We won't spoil them for you here, but if you consult the manual you'll see a more or less exhaustive score breakdown, along with tips on how to earn a few extra seconds or a better gun. All of this sounds good, but the measly 90 seconds you're given by default makes the experience feel cramped and unsatisfying.
If you achieve a high enough score, you will be taken to a bonus stage in which you fire a shipboard cannon at approaching chicken boats. Sentences like that, by the way, are the reason we love to review video games.
The bonus stage's controls aren't quite as good. You drag the stylus to aim and fire the weapon, but it's simply too sluggish to be much fun. The bonus stage in general feels improperly refined, and more like some leftover feature that is still attached to the game despite the fact that it clearly never made it past the beta stage.
The animations are smooth but the character designs are an acquired taste, and the 3D effect doesn't really affect gameplay much. The music is forgettable but certainly not bad.
One more major issue is that this game errs in the same way as Bomb Monkey, which is to say that it's a score attack game that never makes it easy for you to see how your score compares to others. Unless you memorize your score before the level ends, you won't know where on the list you just ended up. That's a huge missed opportunity, and the fact that you have to enter your name fresh each time — rather than having separate profiles for quick entry — just makes it feel laborious. Spending 40 seconds entering your name after only 90 seconds of gameplay is a criminal imbalance.
Crazy Chicken Pirates 3D isn't bad, but it's certainly disappointing. As much potential as there was for a fun, frantic shooting gallery, the 90 second time limit really hampers the experience. The single stage on offer here may well keep you entertained for a few minutes, but there's no denying that this chicken is underdone.


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Letter to the Editor
Published in The Jerusalem Post, on May 30, 2010
We can help, too, to Gilad Schalit Sir, – Rebecca Anna Stoil's article "'Schalit bill,' aimed at toughening conditions for Hamas prisoners, passes major hurdle" (May 24) reports well the Israeli government's unanimous vote on proposed legislation denying Hamas prisoners the wide privileges they receive today in Israeli prisons, like family visits and higher education. The bill is supported by Knesset consensus including the opposition, expressing actual Israeli public opinion. The majority of the Israeli public, while deeply sympathizing with the Schalit family, understands that Hamas' demands are unacceptable. That's why there's a grass-roots effort to pressure Hamas for Schalit's release and an immediate improvement of his conditions. A global petition against Hamas has now been revived. The petition, signed so far by 90,000 people from around the world, demands that Hamas leaders be brought to trial for war crimes (i.a., the crime of keeping Schalit incommunicado in inhumane conditions). It can be read and signed at www.takeapen.org. ENDRE MOZES Chairman, Take-A-Pen Haifa


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Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja
Janmastami morning
Mathura, India: August 31, 2002
[The following is a translation of the class given by Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja on the morning of Sri Krsna Janmastami. In this class, Srila Narayana Maharaja explained the deep meaning of Sri Jayadeva Gosvami's bhajana, Sri Mangala-gitam. The translation was kindly given by Uttama dasa brahmacari.]
In the beginning of this morning's class, Srila Narayana Maharaja asked Krsna dasa to lead the assembled devotees in singing Sri Mangala-gitam. He said that because today is Krsna's Appearance Day, we should begin by first singing this kirtana. Then he said, "Who is really qualified to hear this bhajana? Sri Krsna Himself is actually the only person qualified to hear it. Sri Jayadeva Gosvami is only singing this song to give Krsna happiness. He hopes to see the Lord pleased."
After the bhajana, Srila Narayana Maharaja gave the following elaboration of the verses: When Krsna sees Radharani looking towards Him with sidelong glances, He looses all His power and begins to fall to the ground. His cowherd friend Madhu-mangala notices this and says, "What are You doing? Your mother, father, and all Your relatives are watching. You should check Yourself."
srita-kamalakuca-mandala! dhrta-kundala! e
kalita-lalita-vanamala! jaya jaya deva hare
Sri Krsna takes shelter of kamala. Srita means shelter, and here, kamala means Radharani. Kuca-mandala means that Krsna is taking shelter of the breasts of Radharani. Dhrta-kundala. Krsna's kundala (earrings) are not ordinary. His kundala is the glories of Radharani, and He is always "wearing" that.
Kalita Lalita: Lalita means very attractive and beautiful. Here, Lalita refers to Krsna's vanamala, His garland is made from different varieties of forest flowers. It hangs around His neck and extends down to His lotus feet.
Jaya jaya deva hare: All glories to this Krsna who steals all the distress of the living entities. Especially, He steals the heart of Srimati Radharani. No one can steal the heart of Radharani, except for Krsna.
dina-mani-mandala-mandana! bhava-khandana e
muni-jana-manasa-hamsa! jaya jaya deva hare
Generally, dina mani means 'the sun,' but here it refers to all the universes. India is the topmost place in all the universes, and Sri Vraja Bhumi, the topmost place in India, is the crown jewel in all the universes. So here, dina mani means that Vraja-mandala, not the Sun-god, is the crown-jewel in all the universes.
Bhava means 'material existence,' and it also means 'bondage.' He who delivers others from this material bondage is called bhava-khandana. In this connection, is there any material bondage for the Vraja-devis? They have none at all. Their only bondage is their feelings of separation from Krsna. Krsna is the only person qualified to remove this bondage of separation from the Vraja-devis, so bhava-khandana means that Krsna can remove the distress of the separation of the gopis.
Muni-jana-manasa-hamsa means the 'great sages,' and especially refers to those who meditated on Krsna for a long time in the Dandakaranya forest. It applies to all the yautiki rsis (those who came to Krsna in a group) and ayautiki rsis (those who came individually) who became gopis in their next birth. Muni also refers to Sri Sukadeva Gosvami. Krsna is just like the swan, swimming in the minds of these munis. Jaya jaya deva hare: Jayadeva Gosvami is singing, "All glories to this Krsna."
kaliya-visadhara-ganjana! jana-ranjana e
yadu-kula-nalina-dinesa! jaya jaya deva hare
Kaliya-visadhara ganjana refers to that Krsna who smashes the pride of Kaliya. Krsna easily removed the poison of Kaliya, although Kaliya was extremely poisonous, and after doing so Kaliya became like nectar. In the same way, Krsna can also smash our anarthas, or unwanted desires. We therefore pray to that Krsna.
Jana-ranjana: Jana here means Vraja-jana, or 'the residents of Vraja,' like Nanda Baba, Yasoda Ma, and all of Krsna's friends and cows. Jana here especially means the Vraja-devis, and among them, Srimati Radhika is the most prominent. Krsna is the only person who gives pleasure to the Vraja-jana. He has no other duty; He is always thinking how to give pleasure to Srimati Radharani.
Yadu-kula-nalina-dinesa: Yadu-kula means 'the dynasty of Nanda Baba,' not the dynasty of Mathura. Nalina means 'lotus flower,' and here nalina especially means the lotus flower of the Vraja dynasty, or the Vraja-devis, who are just like the lotus in Vraja-mandala.
Dinesa means 'the sun,' and here dinesa refers to Krsna. Krsna is just like the sun for the lotus flower of Vraja-bhumi. When the lotus flowers of Vraja-mandala offer themselves to Krsna, they begin to blossom, and therefore Jayadeva Gosvami is singing, jaya jaya deva hare: "I'm praying to this Hari, who, just like the sunlight, can make the flower-like gopis blossom."
madhu-mura-naraka-vinasana! garudasana! e
sura-kula-keli-nidana! jaya jaya deva! hare
Madhu, Mura, and Naraka were demons who were killed by Krsna – not really by Krsna Himself, but by other Visnu incarnations. Janmastami is known to have taken place on the eighth day of the moon, but in reality, the eighth day of the moon is the full moon day. In other words, the moon is always complete; only according to our own vision do we see that today is the eighth day of the moon – or the fifth, or sixth, etc. Although always full, the moon is sometimes covered in part by a shadow, and thus we see only three-quarters, half, one quarter, or less. In the same way, all of the incarnations of Krsna, the Visnu incarnations, are also Krsna. It is only our vision that makes us see any difference. It is generally understood that visnu-tattva kills the demons, not Krsna. But actually Visnu is Krsna Himself, Purnacandra (a name of Krsna that means 'the full moon'), the source of all incarnations.
Just as the full moon is also always present on the eighth, and any other day of the moon, Purnacandra, Krsna, is eternally present. In this way, when Visnu killed the Madhu and Mura demons, Krsna was also there. Here it says, madhu mura vinasana. He who killed Mura, and Madhu is also Krsna; the verse indicates Krsna.
Garudasana: Generally Garudasana refers to Narayana, He whose carrier is Garuda. But here, Garudasana means Krsna. Krsna once made Sridama His Garuda-carrier. Jayadeva Gosvami is uttering the word Garudasana, meaning Krsna.
Sura kula keli nidana, jaya jaya deva hare: Sura generally means 'demigods,' but Krsna's madhurya pastimes are not for the demigods. Not only can't they see these pastimes, they also have no qualification to hear them. Venu-gita of Srimad Bhagavatam explains that the demigoddesses have a chance to see something of Vraja-lila, but they cannot see completely. Yet, even when they saw only the semblance of the pastimes there, they fainted and became unconscious. The demigods on the other hand, have no qualification to see Krsna's pastimes, especially the madhurya-mayi pastimes. Only those who attain a qualification like Krsna can hear these pastimes. Keli-nidana: Keli means those pastimes that are giving pleasure to this type of sura.
amala-kamala-dala-locana! bhava-mocana! e
tri-bhuvana-bhavana-nidhana! jaya jaya deva! hare
Amala means 'without any spots or blemishes,' and kamala means 'lotus flower.' Krsna's eyes are just like the petals a spotless lotus flower. Tri-bhuvana-bhavana-nidhana: Tribhuvana here means Vrajabhumi, which is the essence of all of the three worlds. Krsna is the only shelter of Vrajabhumi and the Vrajavasis. Jaya jaya deva hare: I offer my obeisances to this Hari, who is the shelter of all the Vrajavasis.
janaka-suta-krta-bhusana! jita-dusana! e
samara-samita-dasakantha! jaya jaya deva! hare
The general meaning of janaka-suta is Sita devi, the consort of Lord Ramacandra. In the pastimes of Ramacandra, Janaka-suta is decorating Rama with many kinds of paraphernalia. This can also be applied to Krsna's and Radharani's pastimes. Sometimes, Radharani decorates Krsna in the forest. Janaka also means 'father,' and suta means 'daughter.' Therefore janaka-suta in this connection means the daughter of Vrsabhanu Baba. Janaka-suta-krta-bhusana: Bhusana means 'decoration.' Krsna is decorated by the daughter of Vrsabhanu Baba.
Jita-dusana means 'He who defeated the demon, Kala Dusana.' But, jita-dusana also means 'those things that are very bad,' like the very intense separation of the Vraja-devis. Hari, Krsna, removes this, so I offer my obeisances unto that Hari.
Samara-samita-dasakantha: This Nanda-lala (the darling son of Nanda Baba) is defeating dasakantha, the many demons. Jayadeva Gosvami is saying that this Nanda-lala is killing all the demons in Vraja. Jaya jaya deva! hare. I offer my obeisances unto the lotus feet of Hari.
abhinava-jaladhara-sundara! dhrta-mandara! e
sri-mukha-candra-cakora! jaya jaya deva! hare
Abhinava means 'very new,' and jaladhara means that the newly formed cloud is appearing in the sky. It is very soft, glistening, pleasing, and attractive. Krsna's complexion is like this nava-jaladhara.
Dhrta-mandara: Mandara here doesn't refer to Mandara-parvat (one of the largest mountains in the universe; the mountain of the demigods); it means Giri-Govardhana. In one way, it can also be understood that mandara means the two Giriraja Govardhanas of Srimati Radhika's breasts, upon which Krsna takes shelter. The elevated ideas in this connection cannot actually be expressed. We will have to understand them by our bhajana.
Sri-mukha-candra-cakora: Here, sri-mukha refers to Srimati Radharani, whose lotus face is just like the moon. Krsna always hankers to have darsana of that moon. Just like the cakora bird, Krsna is also always one-pointed. The cakora bird will only drink water that comes directly from rain, not from any pond, or ocean, or river. In the same way, Krsna is always hankering to drink the nectar of the lotus face of Srimati Radharani.
tava carane pranata vayam iti bhavaya e
kuru kusalam pranatesu jaya jaya deva! hare
Here, Jayadeva Gosvami, who is most merciful and a very rasika Vaisnava within our sampradya, is saying, tava carane pranata vayam. Vayam is plural. Jayadeva Gosvami alone is writing this song, but he is including us within his prayer to Krsna: "Oh, please be merciful. We are now taking shelter at Your lotus feet."
Kusala means 'welfare.' What is the real welfare? Sri Jayadeva Gosvami is praying, "Oh, please make me the maidservant of Srimati Radharani." Kuru kusalam pranatesu: "Please! We are taking your shelter. We are remembering Your lotus feet. Therefore, please make us the maidservants of Srimati Radharani."
Sri Jayadeva Gosvami is uttering, jaya jaya deva hare three times, so that Krsna will listen to his prayer. The position of the maidservant of Srimati Radharani is topmost, and Krsna Himself wants to serve Her as Her maidservant. Although it is the topmost position, still, Jayadeva Gosvami is appealing three times so that Krsna will accept his prayer. He is indicating, "It is for this purpose that I offer my pranama unto the lotus feet of that Hari."
sri-jayadeva-kaver idam kurute mudam
mangalam-ujjvala-gitam jaya jaya deva! hare
Jayadeva Gosvami is praying to Krsna, "Only You are qualified to listen to this song. No one other than You is qualified to listen to this type of glorification of Srimati Radharani, and therefore I'm writing this song for You. I pray that you will become pleased by hearing it."
What happened to Krsna when He heard this song? His ears stood up and, just like the ears of a calf or a cow, took the form of cups. This song, only meant for Krsna, is the only real offering of prayers of glorification to Him. He becomes very pleased when His devotees sing this song. He will be pleased when you worship She who is dearest to Him. Radha-Krsna's exalted pastimes are explained in Ujjvala Nilamani and other scriptures of the Gosvamis, and if we pray to pastimes such as Sri Krsna offering His head at the lotus feet of Srimati Radhika, He will become very pleased."


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JAISAL NOOR, TRNN PRODUCER: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Jaisal Noor in Baltimore.
On Wednesday, vigils marked the fifth-year anniversary of the killing of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old African-American man who was fatally shot by a police officer at Oakland's Fruitvale Station on January 1, 2009.
Video captured the incident. A warning for our viewers: it is very, very graphic.
Johannes Mehserle, the police officer who was charged with shooting Grant, only served a total of 12 months in prison after being convicted of involuntary manslaughter.
The killing of Grant, failure of prosecutors to convict Mehserle of murder, and his early release sparked protests in Oakland and around the country. The incident has helped bring the issue of police brutality in the African-American community to the forefront.
The feature film Fruitvale Station was released in 2013 and detailed the incident.
Now joining us to discuss this is Thandisizwe Chimurenga. She's an award-winning journalist. Her upcoming book is called No Doubt: The Murder(s) of Oscar Grant.
Thank you so much for joining us.
THANDISIZWE CHIMURENGA, JOURNALIST AND AUTHOR: Thank you for having me.
NOOR: So the officer that was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, a lot of people in this country would argue that justice was served, he had his moment in court, and that we should all be happy with that, we should all accept it. What is your response to such arguments?
CHIMURENGA: My response to an argument such as that is he was not charged with first degree murder, first of all. He was neither convicted of first degree or second degree murder. He was given time off on his sentence.
So just because a person goes through the justice system, does that mean that justice has been served? Yes, he had his day in court. But what is the life of a young black man worth? He spent less time in jail than Michael Vick did for conviction of running a dog-fighting ring. Michael Vick was not convicted of killing dogs. He was convicted of running an illegal gambling ring. Plaxico Burress shot himself and spent more time in jail.
So when you have the power of the state behind you as a law enforcement officer and you commit a violation as clearly egregious as this was and you're sentenced to two years in jail, and then you only spend one year in jail because of good-behavior credits, where is the justice in that?
NOOR: And so police brutality is nothing new in Oakland. It's been happening long before the killing of Oscar Grant. But talk about why this was such a pivotal moment in the communities there that came together and formed this broad movement that was able to bring about concrete changes in Oakland, in law enforcement there.
CHIMURENGA: I think it had to do, again, with the egregiousness of this offense. It was witnessed by hundreds if not thousands of people at one time. It was recorded by scores of people on both cell phones and digital cameras. Testimony in the courtroom showed that people were hearing the press's accounts of what happened the day after and began contacting BART. They began contacting Bay Area media outlets. They began contacting John Burris's office, the civil rights attorney in Oakland, saying no, that's not what I saw, this is what I saw, or here's my footage, here, you can look at it from my angle. So there were so many witnesses to this occurrence—it was, again, videotaped and went viral, thanks to the wonders of YouTube and the internet. And then when you add to it the insistence of the defense to push for such a vile and heinous lie, that Mehserle was attempting to go for his Taser but accidentally pulled his gun and shot Oscar Grant, I think those are some of the main reasons why it created—it struck such a chord in people.
NOOR: And when communities are organizing against issues like police brutality, especially in California, one of the institutions that they come up against, very powerful institutions, are the law enforcement unions. Talk about what role they played in opposing the movement that was demanding justice for Oscar Grant.
CHIMURENGA: Well, in the Oscar Grant case and in several other cases, when you're talking about the issue of police terrorism (that's the phrase that I prefer, as opposed to brutality), you have the police officers' bill of rights, which is a law passed in California which basically shields police officers from public scrutiny. If I'm a journalist and I have a history of writing horrible articles, you can go and look that up. If there is a teacher who's got a history of abusing students, you'll be able to find that out. The same with doctors. But in terms of police officers, if a police officer has a history of abusing people, of shooting, of seeing guns where there are no guns, we can't find that out because of the shield of the police officers' bill of rights.
And so organizations such as the California Peace Officers Research Council and these police unions—in Los Angeles, we have the Los Angeles Police Protective League—all of these various organized entities on behalf of law enforcement ensure that there is a shield, based upon law, that protects their officers from public scrutiny.
NOOR: And talk about the concrete things that were won as a result of this movement that sprung from Oscar Grant's killing.
CHIMURENGA: Well, my understanding is that the Justice for Oscar Grant movement claimed several victories. Now, the victories that they're claiming, I don't know if those individuals will admit to it, I don't know if Tom Orloff will admit that he retired because he was forced to by the Justice for Oscar Grant movement, but he did indeed retire after being forced to issue a warrant for the arrest of Johannes Mehserle for the crime of murder. The police chief of BART, the Bay Area Rapid Transit Association, resigned. And incidentally, since that time, a new report has come out saying that BART has greatly improved its training and policies and performance since Oscar's murder.
We have—again, Johannes Mehserle was the first on-duty police officer in the history of California to be charged with murder for an on-duty shooting. He was the first police officer to be convicted. It was involuntary manslaughter, not murder, but it was still a conviction based upon the outrage and the organizing abilities of people across various stripes, across ethnicities, across cultures, who came together in the wake of this tragedy.
NOOR: And finally, your soon-to-be-released book is called No Doubt: The Murder(s) of Oscar Grant. Talk about the work that remains for this movement in Oakland and around the country.
CHIMURENGA: Well, in Oakland and around the country—well, in California in particular, the police officers' bill of rights either needs to be abolished or amended. We need to be able to know who are those officers who consistently violate the human rights of people in various communities. It either needs to be abolished or severely curtailed. Police power in general needs to be severely curtailed.
What we found with the case of Johannes Mehserle is that police officers are given an automatic get out of jail free card. There is an automatic belief in the officers' innocence in spite of eyewitness testimony, in spite of what may be incidents of terrorism and brutality that we've been able to glean from that officer's past. When jury members go into a courtroom, if we're able to get a conviction, if we're able to—excuse me—if we are able to even get charges filed so that police officers can go through the criminal justice system, they are automatically given the benefit of the doubt.
And that type of support has to be eroded. It goes from the everyday police terrorism that happens in black and brown communities all the way up to what we're seeing now in terms of the militarization of police departments and the increased surveillance and spying powers of police departments across the country. If the blanket support for the police is eroded, there's no way they're going to be able to utilize drones or anything else under the guise of public safety. So that's something that's got to be seriously looked into, this blanket support that the police have when they have obvious records of abuse of their authority.
NOOR: Thank you so much for joining us.
CHIMURENGA: Thank you.
NOOR: You can follow us @therealnews on Twitter, Tweet me questions and comments @jaisalnoor.
Thank you so much for joining us.


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